The present invention essentially is an improvement over a prior invention of one of the instant applicants which is covered by prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,200, dated Mar. 4, 1980, to Frank J. Renda. Basically, the present invention, as well as that of said prior patent, is directed to a hair dressing comb having a plurality of suitable comb members which are retractable into and projectable from circumferentially spaced, suitable openings in a generally tubular housing member having a handle on one end. One of the objectives of said prior patent was to devise a comb assembly having a housing in which longitudinal openings accommodated a plurality of suitable, relatively narrow comb members which were projectable by means of cams engageable slidably with angular surfaces adjacent opposite ends of the comb members per se but it was found that, while the mechanism included in said arrangement operated to a high degree of satisfaction for projecting the comb members from the slots and retracting them thereinto, the resulting structure had a greater diameter than was found desirable for operation by hair dressers and tonsorial artists relative to wrapping strands of hair around the comb and then retracting the comb members into the housing to permit ready removal of the comb assembly from a wrapped curl. In an effort to devise a comb of satisfactory smaller diameter, it was found necessary to include a substantial number of changes and improvement in devising the present invention over the structure of the comb comprising the subject matter of said prior patent.
Although there are a number of prior patents pertaining to projectable and retractable comb members and similiar brush members with respect to slots in a housing, a number of which are referred to in said prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,200, including those cited during the examination of said patent, as well as prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,225,454 to Kayn, dated Dec. 17, 1940; 3,150,353 to Taylor et al, dated Sept. 29, 1964; and French Pat. No. 1,503,353, to Rayette-Faberge, Inc., dated 1967, none of these disclose or suggest the solutions which have been arrived at in devising the present invention primarily for purposes of producing a generally cylindrical housing of relatively small diameter extending from one end of a handle and provided with longitudinally extending slots disposed in evenly spaced circumferential relationship and containing similar elongated comb members in said slots respectively for complete retraction thereinto and radial projection therefrom to operative position, details of which are set forth below.